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Security in Benghazi

By Juliet Lapidos October 12, 2012 12:10 pmOctober 12, 2012 12:10 pm

Perhaps the strongest indication of Vice President Biden’s strong performance last night is that it bothered Mike Huckabee, who compared him to “an obnoxious drunk” at a cocktail party. After President Obama’s empty-chair performance last week, his running mate had to remind voters that liberals can fight, and he did, deploying the word “friend” like a slur. Conservatives have started picking on Mr. Biden’s giggling fits and irrepressible smile—but of course they have.

That said, Mr. Biden fumbled somewhat when discussing Libya, and may have added to the impression that the administration has been less than transparent about what happened.

Mr. Biden said of the consulate in Benghazi, “We weren’t told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there.”
As Glenn Kessler noted in his fact-checking column for The Washington Post, Mr. Biden’s assertion “was contradicted by State Department officials just this week, in testimony before a congressional panel and in unclassified cables released by a congressional committee.” Eric Nordstrom, the former regional security officer for Libya, testified that he asked for 12 security agents and that “all of us at post were in sync that we wanted these resources.”

It is not normal for a security request from a foreign post to go all the way to the president and the vice president, which is perhaps what Mr. Biden meant by “we” in “we weren’t told”—but at the very least the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs knew security was lacking.

The Romney campaign politicized the attack in Benghazi as soon as it happened, claiming–falsely–that the administration had expressed “sympathy” for the assailants. But last night Mr. Biden didn’t help his ticket’s case. The Romney campaign has already sent out a lengthy press release claiming–not unreasonably–that Mr. Biden’s Benghazi statement was “misleading.”